I would like the government to introduce compulsory Digital Literacy in all schools for year six and seven, the top of Primary School and first year of secondary school, to help children anticipate what it means, to help their resilience and help empower them to be more in control in their own social media accounts. Most social media platforms have a minimum age of 13, but keeping up with changing apps and trends is a challenge for parents. Simple things like trying to get people round the table for dinner, the amount of times i have to call people down because theyre on their phones. These mothers have started a project in Primary Schools in kent to make children understand its 0k not to be online. The possibility of feeling rejected is kind of there all the time which is a pretty sad thing, its such a vulnerable age. Todays report warns the challenges are many. Increasing pressures to be popular needs Early Intervention to make sure children are emotionally prepared for life online. Newsday is coming up at midnight. Now on bbc news, its time for newsnight. The playground has always been a judgemental space. But theres no playground more judgemental than that of social media. What does getting a like mean . You get popular. Popularity. You know people like me. Its hard enough for adults to navigate their way through the world of social media, so feel for the children who have to learn the dos and donts for themselves. Englands children commissioner thinks they need guidance. Well ask what parents and schools can do to help, and what damage is done if they dont. Would you be more likely to invest in a furniture manufacturer if they put the word blockchain in their name and said they were now getting into the crypto Currency Business . Yes . Youre not alone. Its all the rage. We have a psychology professor to help analyse your problem. And activist power. A new study tells us what the members of Political Parties think. And, yes, they do think. But are they exerting too much power over parties that are really meant to be accountable to the people . Hello. Weve all met adults who are worryingly addicted to social media and the sense of self worth it gives them. So how much more concerned should we be, when it comes to children . Well, the childrens commissioner for england, anne longfield, is very worried about those leaving Primary School, who end up craving acceptance via likes and positive comments on line. Publishing a study on social media use of 8 to i2 year olds, she concludes that schools need to help the pre teens prepare for the emotional assaults they will endure on social media when they are in secondary school. Theres an enormous change in the use of social media from something that is fun and friendly and part of family life when theyre younger to an absolute cliff edge when 13 go to secondary school, which we know is one of the most pressured times for children when they start to learn what the new environment is about, where they have an avalanche of pressure from social media. Suddenly, the whole new peer group has a phone in their hand and has access to social media as part of that. She thinks parents need guidance too, by the way. But before we talk about how to best help young people navigate social media, lets hearfrom them. We sent Katie Razzall to a Girls State Secondary School in south london today. She talked to some eleven and 12 year olds. Their school has a ban on phones, but for a conversation about phones and what these students do with them, the rules quite fairly went out of the window. Does everyone in your class have a smart phone . Yes. I got it when i was 10, because my mum thinks im sensible. As i got into year six i started having instagram and things like that and yeah. Why did you want them . I think it is because everyone else had it and ijust felt like, its at school, i want it. Youre supposed to be 13 to have them . Yeah. Itjust makes people our age feel under pressure, because youre supposed to have this thing and your parents say you cant and then its over and over again like a cycle, should i get it or not . Other people have facebook, instagram. Some people think that youve got to be like them and do everything they do and if you dont have something, people arent going to like you. I had musicly on my phone, because i thought it would be fun. Then i found out that all the stalkers and all the other people that are not really good. So ijust, my mum told me to take it off. I spend about. Six to seven hours on my phone. Every day . It just depends on what im doing every day. I used to spend a lot of time on my phone, now i spend kind of enough time. What is that . Four or five hours a day. But im not only on social media, im also on games. I dont spend much time on my phone, because i do origami, learning japanese, because of some obvious reasons. What does getting a like mean . You get popular. Popularity. It means im appreciated, people like me. I dont have the social media that gets me likes, but my friends care about getting likes. When i observe my friend getting them likes, they go, like they have won the lottery. They are so happy and they run around, like, i got a like. And for them it means the whole world. Do you think it can be damaging to people . Yeah, because for example instagram theres Something Like the perfect image and the perfect body and people can change that and start to not eat anything or start to change the way they look or you know do things without their parents knowing. Yeah, it is damaging. Do people worry about being rejected if theyre not part of something online . Yes. It depends who it is. Some feel like, if i dont get added to this group then youre not really part of anything and you feel excluded from everyone. People go out of their way to try and make themselves look like the perfect image. Because theyve seen someone like a celebrity and theyre, like, theyre perfect, i want to be like them. So they try to make themselves look like them in speech or in appearance or even in personality. Sometimes two people are having an argument and loads of people go on one side and the other person feels bad. And they get upset and they leave the group and then people add them back to torment them. People believe people, but really like they say, oh, youre not good enough. And, yeah, that is what they say. Online . Yeah, online. How does that make people feel . Sad. Views from one school there. I am joined by head teacher of passmores academy, vic goddard, writer shannon kyle, mother of a 16 year old, and carina maggar, who is choosing to take a step back from social media. I want to ask each of you. If i put a button here and if you pushed that button all social media disappears and is eradicated for everyone under 16, would you push the button . Yes. Why would you do that . Because i think it has so many negative effects and it is so time consuming on their daily lives. So much time is wasted by under 165 spending time on their phone. So we can keep the internet and look things up, just the social media. I would push it as well. Really . Definitely. I think the ability to communicate orally and present yourself is massively affected by the fact is that they communicate in that way and i think it will limit their life chances. You can have both, but that takes parenting and balance. Well talk about what you do about it. We heard one pupil saying six hours a day on the phone. That is ridiculous. Do you come across that that . Yes. If i ask a pupil where their School Planner is they cant find it but they know where their phone it. Shannon, would you push that . Definitely not. I believe it can be a force for good and i think that there is a lot of hysteria around this that is unnecessary. Its like in the 1960s when our grandparents generation were worried and the coffee shops and it was just something for young people and i think that it can do a force for good. They can make friends on social media, they can get advice that they wouldnt otherwise get. Of course, it can be a bit of a beast and it needs containing and it needs using responsibly, but ultimately it is a fantastic thing. When i was a teenager in the 1990s, i was stuck in my bedroom thumbing through old copies ofjust17. Thats all i had im struck by if kids are not being cruel this way, in this method, theyre going to be cruel in another method. Maybe we worry about the vehicle. It is control, though. Where is my child safest . In my house. If my sons in my house i know he is safe. Thats myjob. Not any more. He is not safe in my house. If i dont know what he is on, what social media, we have got to translate social media into the real world, would you allow a stranger to walk into your childs bedroom . No, you wouldnt, but you allow them in through a phone. That is not good enough. Would you like a stranger to walk up to your child in a park . No. It is about good parenting. Shannon, it can be a superaccelerator of problems. Children can bully each other, they always have, but it can be particularly aggressively, unpleasa ntly magnified when there is this power of communication and group communication. Is that not a problem . Of course it is. I wouldnt deny for a second that it was. But at the end of the day, on social media, you can block somebody. If youre getting bullied in the school ground, you have to see them every day at school. And if you educate your children to actually acknowledge when this is happening, when somethings out of order, when theyre being badly treated, you can get them to do it. Do you buy that . I find it so difficult to answer that question. It is about educating your kids. Its about knowing. I worry that putting up a selfie and a kid receiving ten likes is going to feel ugly and insecure and it is about educating your children about the kinds of things they should be sharing online. Lets talk about how we make it better. So we havent got the button, so we just have to make the best of what exists. Vic, you have written a letter to your parents. Bizarrely today. It had nothing to do with this. You have rules, you let them bring phones in. You could say no phones. And schools do. But when you speak to the parents of the children in the school, because some work in my school and theyve never handed their phone in once. So the school has achieved what they want. Hand in your phone. I havent got one today, sir. Of course you havent. For me, it is about as a parent giving them a space where it is monitored. Getting them to understand having a phone is a privilege, not a right. I have given them that phone and there comes responsibility for their behaviour and how they deal with each other. Charging stations in your house. No phone in the bedroom. Before you go to bed, the phone is charged here. So you have a nights sleep. The fear of missing out is such a drive. With your daughter, do you let her keep the phone with her by the bed at night . She is 16 now, i would defy any parent after the age 01 14 or 15 to take that phone off them. I think its about being sensible, but it is also about education, so the kids need to know when they have had enough. Sometimes my daughter says, i have had enough of my phone and im going to put it away. She is just fooling you. That is what i started to do, i found i was spending too much time on my phone. Notjust social media. And you have to have the will power to say it is not the first thing i will look at in the morning. And its not the last thing before i go to bed. It is a fairly tale land, this is the real world. What is in the palm of your hand is a fairy tale version. It takes a lot for a teenager think that when everybody else is looking at their phone. There is a thing about tough love, i dont think it is tough love, it is authentic care. I want to keep my child safe and pow understand the power and what it can be used for in the good and to understand when it is time to put it away, i as a adult will make that decision if i have to. Do you allow your daughter secrets on line, you dont read her texts . No, not anymore. When she was younger, i was there when she signed up to twitter and facebook and, yes, i used to look to see what she was doing. She signed up at 11. She is not allowed at 11 the rule is 13. But theyre all doing it at 11. I made a decision, maybe i may. You let her lie online . Yes i did. I hold my hands up. What does that teach her . Why are there different ages . This is the thing. The social Network Companies need to get together and they need to monitor this. It isnt being monitored. Kids will do what they want at whatever age. You are right, it starts at secondary school, thats when these problems start. If you go to secondary school, you dont have a mobile phone, you are not on social media by secondary school, you are really left out. It must come back to the schools, as much as it comes to the parents. If a parents try to impose something on their child that none of the other are doing. What impact can i have . I cannot tell parents that, i can encourage, but i cant do it. At least the hours you have them at school, you can say put the phones away. That is what we say. From my point of view, if a child is doing a science experiment, they can put it on their phone, and use it later, that is worthwhile. I used to like the blackberry phones, because they used to flash a red light in their pockets. Iphones, we say in your bag, unless we give them permission to have it out. A parent who gives a phone to their child without boundaries, they have reneged on their responsibilities. We will leave it there. Thank you. Youve heard of bitcoin, and its ability to apparently create money from nothing. And hundreds of billions of dollars of money at that. But you may have missed just how wacky the world of crypto currencies has become in recent weeks. There are over a thousand of them now and more are being created all the time. Its a classic gold rush. But even more weird has been the way ordinary companies have jumped on the bandwagon with some spectacular market results. One american iced tea maker, for example, changed its name in december from Long Island Iced Tea corp, to Long Blockchain Corp blockchain being the technology that powers bitcoin and other digital currencies. The share price tripled. Not surprisingly, regulators are worried and many think this is reminiscent of the worst excesses of the dot com bubble. Our Technology EditorDavid Grossman explains what has been going on. A rose by any other name, of course, but in the corporate world names matter. The promising start up backrub that managed to conquer the world would not have done had it not changed its name to google. Would blue ribbon sports have made such a swoosh if it hadnt become nike . 20 years ago, everyone added e or dotcom to their name. Now, the word is blockchain. If people stick blockchain in theircompany name, people will think, we will go with them, because i will see a good return. You are seeing that a lot. Anything with bitcoin is doing well. Blockchain might be able to do similar, so people will want some. Its the technology that underpins currencies like bitcoin. It allows every currency to verify every transaction. It means you can do away with a central register which is vulnerable to hacking. Blockchain is opening up a way to do finance which is more transparent, cheaper, faster, and it gives us the ability to cut out a lot of the middlemen and automated processes, whilst still keeping the same level or an improved level of security. But itll take time. We still have a long way to go. We need to battle test the technology. There will be ups and downs along the way. From a starting point, its a really good start. Are companies simply cashing in on the name . Take, for example, online plc, an essex based company that plodded along with a share price so flat you could hang washing on it. Until late october when it changed its name to Online Blockchain plc, the 400 Share Price Rise immediately. The ceo says the name change simply reflected the reality of what the company was now doing, according to its owner. We have only changed our name once in a generation. But it was a big change. Its had a big effect. We could have carried on with online and not changed the name and nobody would know for another six, nine months, that would be a distortion of the facts. Its important with names that you tell people what you are doing and that you transmit your message. Its all well and good being called something obscure, but its hard to get your message across. In some cases, though, in the early stages of a new technology it isnt always possible to say which companies claims are real and which mere illusion. Investors have to be very careful. There is a lot of good projects out there and equally there are a lot of projects that have understood that byjust using the buzzword blockchain you can attract a lot of investors and money. Homework is required. A lot of self education, self teaching, is required before putting any money to these products. As the super investor Warren Buffett sagely remarked, only when the tide goes out do you discover who has been swimming naked. The blockchain tide is still rising and who knows, it might for decades, or it might drain on the sand tomorrow, exposing, well, who knows what . Well, at least in the time of tulipmania, there were actual tulips at the end of it all, and people understood what they could do. Lets talk to professor peter ayton who is a psychologist specialising in behavioural economics. Would you buy shares into a company that changed its name, and changed its focus to dabbling in crypto currencies . Possibly. Im a human like everybody else. I dont suppose my behaviour would be that discrepant from what everybody else might think. To me it looks crazy. What would motivate people to go into this . Has greed taken over . There is some psychology, isnt there . There is literature that points to a behaviour which is anomalous with respect to what economists think ought to be happening. That shouldnt be a surprise. We have had another nobel prize for a behavioural economist this year. What we observe happening is no surprise to me. Is it almost hormonal, biological, you can put peoples brains into mris and see what they are thinking when they make these choices . This is the field of neuro economics. The existence of such a field would be a Science Fiction 20 years ago. But now it is providing us with all sorts of insight into the way the brain does things, which then have ramifications. It is slightly curious to me that we have this, sort of common interest in phenomena, which, sort of, looks psychological more than economic. Irrational exuberance is one of the hallmarks of the surprise that human beings have brains and emotions and all sorts of things, why shouldnt that reflect in economic behaviour . Looking at this, though, youve got people borrowing money to invest in these things. In the currencies themselves. And now presumably in some of the shares of companies dabbling in it. Probably doing that in the hope others will do that, so the prices will go on up. Isnt that just a bubble . An archetypal case of a bubble . The stock market is based on an audit assessment of what people think other people will think, other people will think its worth, and so on. You are basing things on peoples behaviour, rather than understanding asset value of a business. What is the asset value of a business that says, we made furniture, now we are going to do something involving a currency like bitcoin. How do you possibly think this company is going to be in a particularly good position to generate profit . I dont really understand exactly why the sort of thing happens. Neither does anybody else, for that matter. The idea that changing the name of something might make a difference is as old as the hills. Weve seen that happen many times. You seem more relaxed by this than perhaps even regulators are. They are obviously worried lots of people will lose quite a bit out of it, i think. I dont know how you can regulate for people to prevent them from speculating in a way they see fit. There is an market if you regulate that out of existence. And people losing money. The advice is not to invest into it if you cannot afford to do that if you lose. I dont know how much the investment is discretionary. I dont know, i would be astonished if everybody bet their hat on bitcoin, for example. Thank you very much. Viewsnight has no aspirations to add blockchain or any other cryptocurrency terms to its title. It is is of course our opinion slot, and this week we are getting views on big issues that face us in 2018. Now on brexit, among fervent remainers, there is a big debate going on right now as to whether it is right to aim at reversing brexit, or whether that is anti democratic. Its a lively argument, but tonight, times columnist David Aaronovitch argues that brexit voters may be in demographic decline. Should we be grateful to the members of Political Parties . They pay subscriptions that help keep the parties going, they trudge the streets trying to bring politics to your doorstep, they go to meetings to help shape party policy. And however much you may dislike politicians, you at least have to recognise that democracy requires functioning parties, even if it is only to give you something to complain about. So, yes, we should be grateful to the activists. But at the same time there is a problem they now have the power to pick a Prime Minister and yet they are not altogether representative of the population at large. And we can say that now because of a big survey of Party Members, carried out by the Mile End Institute attached to Queen Mary University of london. Youve all see the tv coverage of the party conferences. And maybe you can tell theyre not typical. The average age of conservatives is 57. The population at large is younger, average age a0. Labour is more surprising. You might have seen images of lots of young corbyn supporting activists, but the partys membership actually has an average age is not much different to the tories, 53. But what about members views . Labour and tories are poles apart, they embody the divisions within the country. On same sex marriage, for example, conservatives are only a1 in favour, labour, 85 . The public are in the middle at about 66 . On the Death Penalty, most tory members think it is an appropriate sentence for some crimes, and fewer than a tenth of labour voters do. National polls put public support for the reinstatement of the Death Penalty at between 36 and 49 , depending on how you ask the question. Then of course there is brexit. Should britain stay in the Single Market . A quarter of conservatives want to, the vast bulk of labour members want to. As for the public at large, again, polls vary, as do the questions, but generally support for the Single Market is nearer 50 . You would expect activists to be unrepresentative, particularly as there are so many fewer of them as they used to be. The tories boasted of having over 2 million members in the 50s, now it is maybe fewer than 150,000, but they dont publish figures any more. But thats select group has the potential power to select a Prime Minister. In 2016, when David Cameron resigned, tory members came close to having a say between theresa may and Andrea Leadsom over who would lead the country. It would have been the first time Party Members had chosen a pm and, on the evidence of the poll, tory members would have been closer to Andrea Leadsom. She, of course, dropped out of the race before they had a say. But the country is already very divided and in order to unite us politics need to involve the process ofarbitration between values. The issue is should power be in the group who tend to have opinions at the extreme ends of spectrum . When i said there was 150,000 fewer tories, some say it half that number, but as i say they dont publish the figures. Ustin fisher is professor of Political Science at Brunel University london. Also with me we have two Party Members. Cherry mosteshar is co chair of momentum in oxford. Chloe ahmed is a member of the conservative party. Good evening. Why do you do it . I ask that myself on a very cold january evening when im standing at someones door trying to persuade them to vote labour when all they want to know is why Jeremy Corbyn wears a certain kind of shoe. It does get soul destroying sometimes. But i really believe that if you want a certain sort of world and you have a vision of how it can achieve that, you have to go out there and try and at least talk to people and tell them why you think they would be better off. What about you chloe, do you, hope that you will influence the conservative party in some way as an individual . That and you have to be, to change anything, you have to be part of it. You cant expect your future to be a certain way if you dont put anything into it. You cantjust sit back and say this will happen. Youre describing a sort of civic duty. Yes, you cant expect anything to happen if you dont put anything in. You are half the age of the conservative party. You must be the youngest person in the room bya mile, no . Everybody says that, but no, there is lots of young conservative groups, we have a great Young Conservative Movement and we go to lots of socials and meetings and im not the only person. And youre on the liberal end, the younger demographic, political views as well, because i think you support theresa may, are in favour of same sex marriage. Yes definitely. I go to meetings and im the oldest one. How did that happen . We have shown this young activist labour party, your members are the same age as the conservative parties. 53 to 57. Well, there is a big influx of new, young members and they have more energy than activists have had. I have been doing this for a0 years and i have never seen so many people saying, we are going out are you coming . Labour do have half a million members. It is incredible. Lets talk to professor fisher. Is it an issue that these people have too much power . If it is an issue, it has always been an issue. At the start of 20th century people asked if it was democratic that we are accountable to the members. Labour kept the unions, because they were scared of people being too radical. Before it was a balancing act between voters, the leader and the activists, what we see in labour is the leadership and the activists, at least the momentum being more aligned than usual. As we have seen in this data, the voters are nor centrist. Im not a separate group. I organise under a banner calmed momentum, which sued to be the campaign to electJeremy Corbyn. We had all these people. But to preserve his legacy. Youre a Labour Party Member no 1. Absolutely. Did you campaign for blair . I did, but, you know, those were my salad days. So, is it the case that parties this is the crucial question, parties have that have more activists or member power become more alienated from the voters . That has tended to the care, particularly with more left of centre. Thats largely been because right of centre parties have been able to command things like finance from outside sources. Left of centre parties tend to be less well served financially. Now, labour has had the unions in the past. But, you know, now we see that the conservatives are more a wealthy party. It is a balancing act. You have got to give the members something back. But sometimes as weve seen democratic participation can be unpredictable. What do you think of momentum . Do you think of momentum as a great Democratic Force . You obviously dont adegree with them. Agree. Do you see it as a good thing . To engage people, yes. It is a good thing for every Political Party to be able to engage with the general public. But what momentum has become, do i agree with it . No. What has it become . Online, it has become a platform for people to abuse. There is no such thing as momentum, as, were a disparate group. We a re leaderless. There is no one to answer to, so theres no control. What i want to ask is, would you consider it democratic in 2016 if tory members had picked Andrea Leadsom as leader. Does that feel to you democratic . Well, we have to look at the whole system. A lot of it isnt democratic. But youre happy with that . You believe in members . I believe that members and especially now with the growing members of labour party. Would you be happy with tory members picking a Prime Minister. Of course youre happy with labour members picking a Prime Minister, what about tory members. That is democracy. I mean, its like saying, yeah, i would like to choose, you know, that we werent going out of europe. But i cant. Why on earth not . When blair resigned as leader, the labour members had the opportunity to elect a new leader. As it turned out, it was the same kind of one member election that we had in the conservative party. But it is no different if it is the conservative party or the labour party. But the members, the mp5, are accountable to their voters. And so you used to be, until recently that the mps chose the leader a the Prime Minister and now the mps might be foisted upon them somebody they dont want as leader. That is always a danger. We saw that with the conservative party when Iain Duncan Smith was elected. So sometimes you can make unpredictable decisions, but what you have to remember is the parties have to give members something to keep them involved. I mean, cherry and chloe here do all the wonderful things that Party Members do, campaigning and so on, but what is the incentive for someone to get involved if they dont get a say . Its a real balancing act for parties. Its extending it. Also, you know, having members choose the leadership, whatever party is more democratic. Its about. Better than the mp5, you think . Yes because theyre a small group, deals can be stitched up, they think about their promotions. Are they re accountable to the voters in a way that the activists arent . If youre asking members, we are members of conservative party, but anybody can be a member of a Political Party. Anyone canjoin. Justin says this argument has been raging since 1902. So we probably wont resolve it now. But were trying to make politics that reflects the people. Thank you all very much. Just a very quick time to look at the papers. The financial times, Companies Want to replace hardware or risk attack. The times question president trumps mental health. The guardian, theresa may says sorry to patients over nhs delays. And the express give foreign aid crash to nhs. Well, that is it for this evening. But glasgow Film Festival announced today it will open with the uk premiere of Wes Andersons new film, an animated feature called isle of dogs. Anderson is famous for his hyper stylised and symmetrical aesthetic. You may have seen it in films like the grand Budapest Hotel and the royal tenenbaums. Well, sometimes life imitates art. Wally kovals instagram feed accidentally wes anderson gathers some evidence for that. Good night. Music alone again or by love. Good evening. Storm eleanor may be out of the way but we still have strong and gusty winds to contend with tonight. This was the scene captured by one of our weather watchers earlier in the day. Weve still got the strong winds in the south but they are easing away and the weather will be quaking down into the weekend. Some heavy showers around, with the squalling winds, especially for the south west of england. Showers moving from west to east across england and wales. Further north we have hill snow for scotla nd further north we have hill snow for scotland into the north east of england. A cold start to friday here. Frosty, with mist and fog around. But the day we continue with rain showers moving from west to east in wales. Perhaps hill snow into central and southern england. Along the south coast there should be some sunshine and for parts of wales, north west england and northern ireland, brightness developing. For north east england we keep the rain and kill snow and through friday night we have the winds turning to more of a northerly direction. Cold air coming from the north. Mr, fog and frost developing into the early hours of saturday. It will be a cold start and that cold theme will stay with us. We will start to draw the winds in from a north easterly direction as High Pressure builds across northern parts of the country. For saturday the northerly breeze will bring clear skies and sunshine to scotland, Northern England and northern ireland. Further south in the uk still fairly cloudy on saturday, with showers. Temperatures about 2 seven degrees. With the the clearest guys work further south on saturday night, returning chilly. Skies. Minus 4 minus five degrees on saturday morning. The chance of frost and icy stretches around. After the cold start it is looking generally fine and settled, with High Pressure building across the country through the second half of the weekend. After a chilly start to sunday each of we the brighter day on the weekend. The top temperatures only about freezing across eastern scotland. We could see 5 7 further south. A change in the weather to something much more wintry as we head through the next days and it is looking much less windy here. Im rico hizon in singapore. The headlines donald trump tries to block the publication of a book containing explosive quotes by his former strategist steve bannon, but now the publisher says it will come out friday. The us promises seoul therell be no military exercises during the Winter Olympics in south korea. Im Babita Sharma in london. Also in the programme. As Severe Weather continues to hit around the globe, well have the latest on the big freeze in the us and the snow which is causing havoc in china. Chinas first crew to compete in one of the Worlds Toughest ocean races from sydney to hobart sails into a prominent position